Former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas should better shut up, a Palace official said on Wednesday

This was after Roxas asked for a political ceasefire and urged President Rodrigo Duterte to address first the high prices of rice.

In a radio interview, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque accused Roxas of being the one who was engaged in politicking when he was with the government during the previous administration.

He said that because of Roxas' negligence due to politicking, the people of Leyte have suffered.

"My message is, if he would just return what he did during Yolanda, thank you very much, never mind," Roque said in a radio interview.

In another radio interview, Roque told Roxas to "shut up."

During the height of Super Typhoon Yolanda that hit most parts of the country, particularly Leyte, in 2013 Roxas was in Tacloban City as the government's point person.

However, the government was blamed for alleged failure to prepare for the typhoon, which left over 6,000 people dead and thousands still missing.

Roxas, in his Facebook post on Monday, proposed some measures to address the rising prices of rice, which could increase due to damage in the agriculture sector by Typhoon Ompong, which recently hit northern Luzon. Celerina Monte/DMS